Is the People of Color Space, Collective Space, and/or Frente X only open to People of Color?

What is Frente X?

Why the name Frente X or Frente X for International Liberation (FXIL)?

What exactly does solidarity among different groups of People of
Color (including LGB, trans and gender non-conforming People of Color
included) look like?

Why haven’t we been able to stop imperialism when we have diasporas from around the world here in the U.S.?

How can we overcome prejudices and barriers
(such as compounded racism, machismo, misogyny, transmisogny, trauma) in
order to build solidarity models that liberate?

1) How did the creation of the People of Color Space (POC) Space or Collective Space at the 2016 Border Encuentro come about?

SOA Watch held a strategy session with staff, council, and key allies
in June of 2016. Among other things, there was a general mandate to:

Broaden (step-by-step, and by walking with our supporters and
allies) our work to address not just imperialism/state violence in Latin
America and immigration detention in the U.S., but also other forms of
state violence throughout the Americas, e.g. police brutality,
surveillance, and mass incarceration in the U.S. & Canada. To a
lesser degree we’ll also be connecting imperialism/state violence in
other regions of the world to these struggles, primarily through working
with different diaspora communities. It is understandably more
difficult to ask other People of Color, migrants, & diaspora to
devote time and energy into solidarity with Latin America/Latin
Americans when their own communities face crises caused by imperialism
other forms of state violence.

Increase organizing efforts with the directly
affected (by both domestic and international state violence), migrants
& refugees, Black and Brown youth, youth in general, and build new
alliances and forms/directions of solidarity.

The November Vigil in Georgia has been a
powerful place for all to join, learn, and resist imperialism/state
violence. Vigil attendees, SOAW supporters & staff, and Prisoners of
Conscience have contributed much to the struggle for justice in the
U.S. and Latin America. However, in practice the Vigil and greater
“solidarity work” often is alienating for Latinx, other people of color,
youth, LGB, queer, trans & gender non-conforming people and others.
At first, the POCS or Collective Space was conceptualized as an
opportunity to build solidarity among the “Directly Affected” in the
U.S. and Latin America during the Encuentro in Nogales AZ & Mexico.
The focus was first on Black/Brown unity, given similar struggles and
overlapping identities (e.g. the Drug War, forced migration, private
prisons/immigrant prisons, African diaspora in Latin America). We soon
came to the conclusion that other People of Color should also be
included. The moral necessity to make the Encuentro/Convergence
accessible to our undocumented family led us to instead create the POCS
in Tucson, AZ, where people are not forced to traverse a Border Patrol
checkpoint in order to arrive. In August, we began in earnest to
organize the POCS in Tucson. It quickly became apparent that the
majority of those interested in putting in the work to address
inter-sectional issues around state violence at the Encuentro were Womyn
of Color. The core organizers decided it was necessary to utilize the
opportunity to also include gender justice as a founding principle of
the POCS or Collective Space. The evolution of the Space and coalition,
with all of its flaws and limitations, has occurred organically and is
by no means a complete process. We know this work needs to continue past
the Encuentro, which is more of a starting point than an ending point.

2) Is the People of Color Space, Collective Space, and/or Frente X only open to People of Color?

For the 2016 Encuentro, one must self-identify as a Person of Color to participate in the Encuentro’s People of Color or Collective Space. We know
that all justice-minded people, including White Americans, need to work
together to dismantle the intertwined and oppressive systems of
capitalism, imperialism, white supremacy, and cis-heteropatriarchy. Nevertheless, we
believe it is the targets of these systems that have the most to lose
and the most to gain from the ongoing struggle, and therefore are best
positioned to genuinely lead successful “solidarity movements” or
international movements against state violence. Yet many Latinx and
other POC have often felt excluded and unheard within the “Latin
American solidarity movement”. We seek to re-imagine and focus on
building solidarity among the various communities who are the primary
targets of these oppressive systems. These groups include, but are not
limited to, the poor, migrants, refugees, queer, trans & gender
non-conforming people, laborers, service workers, sex workers, Muslim,
Native, Black, Latinx, API, South Asian, African, and other People of
Color and diaspora. This is not an exhaustive list of identities, nor
are they mutually exclusive of one and other. Nevertheless, we are in the process of figuring out how to include non-POC s unclear if the POCS,
Collective Space, and/or Frente X will be open to non-POC after the
Border Encuentro. For the time being, we felt that this was the least
imperfect, yet necessary way to limit participation. The workshop, “White Allyship: Processing Accountability and Healing Together” was organized in conjunction with the POC Space. It took place in Nogales, Arizona on Saturday 10/8/16.

3) What is Frente X?

Frente X for International Liberation, or “Frente X”, is a new,
evolving collective/coalition organizing against state violence at home
and abroad (e.g. imperialism, police brutality, militarization,
incarceration, surveillance). Developing through the organizing for the
SOAW Border Encuentro (specifically the POCS or Collective Space), the
founding members of Frente X are predominantly Womyn of Color. Our
first tasks have been to create the POCS at the Encuentro, and help
mobilize People and Youth of Color, QTPOC, those most affected by the
oppressive systems of capitalism, imperialism, white supremacy, and
cis-heteropatriarchy to that Space in Tucson on October 8.
We hope that we are able to then plant the seeds to a more permanent
network of people committed to confronting and dismantling the above
mentioned oppressive systems. Click here to read our “Living Statement” Preliminary Principles and Goals of the POC Space (Frente X for International Liberation), which will be completed, revised, or replaced after the Encuentro.

Frente X intends for POCS participants gather in order to
conceptualize and strategize on how to confront state violence and
practice solidarity with each other and those resisting state violence
across the globe. We hope to create a space in order to learn, heal and
transcend together. We are inspired by, and seek to be in solidarity
with the Movement for Black Lives, the migrant rights’ movement, the
Native-led resistance in Standing Rock and other indigenous movements,
the LGB, Queer, Trans and Gender non-conforming rights movements, and
other foreign and domestic resistances. Although we know that, for
various reasons, not all groups/identities will be well-represented at
the Encuentro, we invite our native family, migrants, refugees, queer,
trans and gender non-conforming POC, laborers, sex workers, Black,
Latinx, Asian Pacific Islanders, African, and all POC, Indigenous, and 3rd World diaspora interested in this endeavor to join us in Tuscon, Arizona on October 8th for the People of Color Space., at the Dunbar African American Culture Center, a fitting venue given its history and ongoing mission.

4) Why the name Frente X or Frente X for International Liberation (FXIL)?

(NOTE: Some love the name and have been inspired to join the
Encuentro partly because of it. Others aren’t too fond of it and/or roll
their eyes after hearing the explanation for it. We simply wanted to
separate ourselves from just being called “the POC Space”, and to
signify our intention to keep working together after the Encuentro. The
name could be changed, reaffirmed, or irrelevant, who knows.)

The name Frente X for International Liberation, and especially the X,
was decided upon for many reasons. The entire name is a nod to and
variation of the names of Latin American liberation groups like the
Zapatistas or Sandinistas that prefaced “Frente” or “Ejercito” to the
name of a national hero and then added “National Liberation”, (e.g.
FMLN, FSLN, EZLN). Instead of “National” we decided upon International,
although Transnational has been suggested as a more accurate term. It is
purposefully a bilingual name, as Frente means “Front” in Spanish, but
we do not intend on ever translating it into English. We will also
normally not translate the “International Liberation” into Spanish as a
way to signify our inter-racial, international make-up and purposes.

The X is an allusion to the many forbearers of the
Black radical tradition whom chose X as their last names. We didn’t want
to unnecessarily uphold any one person, so X is also a stand in
representing all of us. In Spanish, gendered words are the norm, but as
reflected in the relatively new term Latinx, there are a growing amount
of people that recognize that language impacts gender
inclusion/exclusion. Instead of using “O” (masculine) or “A” (feminine),
“X” is used to make some words gender neutral, like Latinx. Utilizing
traditional name patterns (e.g. Zapatistas), the nickname for the group
could also be Xistas in Spanish, which sounds similar to “exista” o
“existo”, an affirmation that we exist. These are some of the ways that the name itself reflects the values of POC affirmation, inter-POC unity, and gender justice.

5) What exactly does solidarity among different groups of
People of Color, including among and with LGB, trans and gender
non-conforming People of Color, look like?6) Why haven’t we been able to stop imperialism when we have diasporas from around the world here in the U.S.? 7) How can we overcome prejudices and barriers (such
as compounded racism, machismo, misogyny, transmisogny, trauma) in
order to build solidarity models that liberate?

We don’t have answers to these questions, only an invitation and genuine desire to address them, learn, and build with one another.